Coming down to the wire. I’m in much better shape this year than I was last year but still have a few major hurdles to get over in the next 2 weeks.
Out of curiosity I had to go look at where I was this time last year and… uh, yeah I’d say I’m still in a slightly better place this year than last but not by much LOL At least I don’t have 30 panels of floral velvet applique to still sew on this year – but I do still have an entire headgear thing to make and bead for Jessica soooo
That thing is the last major major thing I really need to do. I at least have a START on the headgear for Padme.
But we’ll get to my to-do list at the end, let’s talk about what I DO have done.
always watching…
I spent all Saturday evening getting the closures finished up on Padme. It was a few hours of having to put it ALL on including the skirt and all because it changes the way the bottom of the bodice sits. Pinning and marking stuff, taking it all off, sewing what I marked, getting it all back on, marking the next thing, rinse and repeat. I tried to work on what I could with it still on LOL but that was too hard.
So there’s no pics of it finished. Why? Because I wasn’t happy with it. The original closes with hook and eyes so that’s what I did too. I got rows of hook and eye tape positioned and hand-sewn on. Then I got the beaded applique piece positioned on sewn on. Then I got the neck closure sewn on. Then the closures for the overlapping part of the applique using snaps.
It’s just too damn complicated. I decided to take all of the hook and eye tape out and just do the whole leading edge with snaps. Why have a line of hook and eyes underneath the beaded piece? It’s just too much and it didn’t all lay exactly right. I had planned to do that yesterday but got sucked into another project…
But let’s rewind because Saturday morning I worked on getting Jessica’s sleeves finished.
I finished up beading the sleeves last week (and the shoulder/chest/head piece is partially done) so I just needed to create the shoulder extension pieces and bead it. I got them made, finished and one side beaded. Will do the beading on the other side sometime this week, will only take about 15 mins or so.
I ran into an issue of HOW to attach these sleeves. They’re too heavy to attach to the dress or the headpiece thing. Sooo I made an extension out of ribbon that goes under the dress, loops around my bra straps and snaps back onto itself.
Worked pretty good.
So then Sunday ended up being nothing but Chase projects.
First up we ran out to Walmart, because Chase needed some cotton fabric, I needed more snaps for redoing the front of the Padme vest. We didn’t want to drive all the way to Joann and Michael’s doesn’t have fabric, so we headed into the ninth circle of hell, the Super Walmart.
We were there in late June looking for the Stranger Things Surfer Boy pizza and I had gone back to crafts to pick up something, and at that time, they had skids of boxes blocking the craft aisles. Didn’t expect for them to STILL BE THERE IN AUGUST.
Seriously WTF. This shit takes up the whole aisle. I had to climb over the edges of the pallets to get to the snaps.
And then this was the other fabric/crafting aisle. You couldn’t even get in there. I had to walk around and climb in from the other direction to get to the batting.
It’s not even like… all skids of shit to be unpacked. There were carts back in there for some reason, a garment rack, random open boxes just laying on the floor. WTF.
There was more in the art supplies aisle too.
Anyway then I spent the rest of the day focusing on Chase’s stuff. I finished up the closures on his poncho so he can apply the wax. Then started working on modifying his Leto suit.
We bought 2 basic grey jumpsuits on amazon. The main one I took up a bit, hemmed the sleeves and pants, and took the collar off. The second one I used to scavenge extra fabric for the knee and elbow armor pockets and the pleated panels.
I got the leg parts done, and got a start on the sleeves – but then I kept missing up the pleated panel on the sleeve, so I called it a night. That’s a rule my mom made up back in early cosplay days – if you have to unpick it more than once, it’s time to take a break.
Also here’s a random pic of some of his armor he’s working on in the garage.
In other news, I recurled my Crusher wig.
I wanted a tighter wave look than how I wore it last time.
Kristie got me these salt and pepper shakers for hemming her pants!
And then look at these buttons I found at Joann! They had a bunch of star wars and disney buttons!
Saturday when we went out for dinner we ran to Lowe’s too because Chase needed chip brushes and a friend had posted they had Halloween stuff out – including new Haunted Mansion stuff. Our closest Lowe’s was a bust on Halloween stuff. Went to the next closest one, no luck. There was one more we could stop at on the way to picking up dinner so we tried it and….SCORE.
Hadn’t planned to get these but Chase just got paid for a freelance job soooo treat yo’self I guess.
And now let’s talk about the “3rd costume problem.” I keep trying to shoehorn in a 3rd costume that I don’t have time for.
First it was Breha. I thought I maybe had time, but decided to wait til “end of July” to see how things were looking and at that point I was like nah it’s not gonna happen.
Second is the costume I AM doing after Dragoncon because I’ve bought fabric. It’s here and it’s BEAUTIFUL I’m obsessed!! It’s not a complicated costume but it IS complicated in finding the right tone of supplementary fabric to go with it. If they’d had something at Joann the other day I may still have been considering it but they didn’t, so I’m going to have to start getting swatches and there’s no way I’d have swatches here in time to order before Dragoncon. I even already have boots and a wig that will go with it. But alas, it’ll be something I can leisurely work on after dcon, and I’ll take it next year.
Third was an idea I had Saturday. Mara Jade’s green dress. It’s super simple. I could do the sewing required in a day. Use my own hair. I’ve got stuff to make a belt and shoulder pauldrons. Use some boots I already have. And then I’d match Chase’s old Luke. Been wanting to do this for ages. I let it hinge on finding a fabric I liked for the dress when we had to go to Hobby Lobby saturday but they didn’t have anything.
And honestly I do NOT have time to squeeze in a third costume. If I’m done early, good, I can clean up my Raddus Leia wig and fix some missing red vinyl spots on Wanda and not be stressed.
The reason I keep trying is that I know if I don’t do it now, it’s going to be another year before I can wear it at dragoncon. Yeah I know I can make costumes for other cons but it doesn’t hit the same.
Anyway, somebody talk me off the 3rd costume ledge because my brain won’t shut up about it.
Let’s update the to-do list:
Padme:
attach panel to vest
Closures on the vest (I mean, technically done but redoing it)
paint headpieces
assemble headpieces on headband
make hairpieces (I did start on this at least)
paint armbands
Jessica:
finish beading the shoulder head thing
make frame for face jewelry
bead that thing too
finish bustle points
(Oh my idea for a magnetic bustle didn’t work. I tried it. It came undone too easily even with my super strong magnets. Boo! So Chase spray painted some hook and bars gold for me saturday so I’m just going to use that.)
Luke:
Closures on poncho
attach wraps on boot covers
(just gluing the wraps on and then need to attach velcro closures)
Leto:
Figure out the jumpsuit
Finish putting arm pieces on jumpsuit
So tonight… finish the Leto jumpsuit so I can totally mark that off the list. GET MY JESSICA HEADPIECE MADE. I mean the base of it. So I can start adding all the shit to it. I’ll feel miles better when that is done.
Still have 2 weekends, no need to panic yet…